UKC

LAMM & OMM entrants take note: The brand new Mica jacket is the lighest fully waterproof, windproof and breathable jacket that Marmot has ever made.

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/news.php?id=1867

For more details on the technical fabric used in the Mica Jacket click on:

http://marmot.com/spring_2009/mens/outerwear/shells/mica_jacket/info/techno...

In reply to UKC Gear:

Why can't they give the colours normal names? What do Eclipse, Cilantro and Alert mean in English?

In reply to UKC Gear:

Could be good. Can't say i've seen it tried it on yet. My major criticism of these fully waterproof lightweight racing shells though are the hoods. I've got a Montane one and while the jacket fits well round the body and arms and is very light, the hood is practically unuseable as the velcro is so small it doesn't hold the hood in position so it merely gets blown off and with no wire rim (to save weight) you just end up with waterproof in your face if you want to put it up. If you're running and you need to use a hood (for protection mainly from driving hail/sleet/snow/rain the likelehood of their being a breeze is pretty high. I'd like to see much more useability of this ultralight gear rather than just chasing the lowest weight on the scales. How much weight would a wire rim add? 30-40g? Not much for head protection really.

In reply to Mr Ed: Hey Mr Ed,

I have one of these on test at the moment and will have a review up on the site in a couple of weeks.

Was wearing it for some of the day yesterday in fact.

I will make sure I put a full section on the hood.

Cheers,

Jack

In reply to Jack Geldard - Editor - UKC: And just to add to the ads for UKC gear reviews... UKC will also have a review of the the superlight Marmot Nano Jacket made of paclight goretex http://marmot.com/spring_2009/mens/outerwear/shells/nano_jacket in a few weeks time. All I need now is for it to bloomin' rain so I can really try it out! Unfortunately we don't have North Wales' reliably unreliable weather here, and it keeps being annoying sunny and warm.

In reply to Mr Ed:

29 grammes seemingly! The Marmot jacket I'm testing has both a wire and some sort of plastic stiffener in the hood peak. It might be the type of thing you are looking for. I will make sure I test it properly when it does rain.

In reply to Mr Ed:

I totally agree with what you say. I have the Essence jacket and the only thing that lets it down is the hood/visor arrangement. It's pants. The only way that I've found round this is to wear a peaked cap(Innov8 running one) but downside is you can get too hot if running with hood up and cap on.

I guess that a wired peak would limit the size that you can pack the jacket down to though so maybe that's why they don't use them on superlightweight jackets.

In reply to Mr Ed:

I've got a Haglofs LIM Ultimate jacket:

http://tinyurl.com/qwxgs2 @247g

The hood is really good. Elastic volume reducer pins it to my head and a stiffened (fabric stiffener) peak keeps the rain out of my eyes.

Did very well in the 2008 OMM (the jacket, not me).

LAMM entrants have only 3 days left to purchase the Mica ready for the event.

If you are still thinking of buying the Mica for the race then there still maybe time for you to purchase one.

Click on the Mica jacket over view in the gear pages to find out all UK stockists.